The book, for children under seven years old, was inspired by a creative writing residency undertaken by Debi Gliori in September 2007, run by Shetland Arts in partnership with SIC Creative Links and supported by the Scottish Book Trust’s Live Literature Funding.

Speaking about the book, Debi Gliori said, “Stormy Weather is my love letter to Shetland. It is my lullaby for the  children I met, a love song to the sea-wrapped landscape I walked and  a heartfelt thank you to the people of Shetland for making me so  welcome and so very much at home.”

The deadline for voting is the 28^th January 2011 – vote at this address:

http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/royalmailawards

Debi Gliori’s residency was the first of four Creative Writing Residencies run by Shetland Arts in partnership with the SIC Creative Links, in Shetland Primary schools.

If you have tickets for either of Sharon’s events please contact the Shetland Box Office – 01595 745 555 – for a full refund.

Alternatively you can have your ticket(s) replaced with tickets of the same value for another Wordplay event, subject to availability.

Janis Mackay has kindly stepped into the breach and will run a session about the influence of traditional story telling on her writing, in which she will share the stories that inspired her novel, “Magnus Fin and the Ocean Quest”, and speak about how writers can use traditional stories to inspire and develop their own writing. Lovers of stories and writers of all ages are welcome: tickets for this session are available from the Shetland Box Office.

The festival will feature a glorious variety of events including writing workshops as well as author events, children’s events and will feature an eclectic mix of writing, including, children’s fiction, literary fiction, poetry, erotic fiction, film criticism, song writing and writing for the stage. an interactive online programme can be viewed at Wordplay.

Celebrating Wordplay’s close connections with Screenplay, Shetland’s Film Festival, the event will feature renowned, film critic, writer and broadcaster, Mark Kermode who will make a welcome return to Wordplay in order to talk about, read from, ask questions about and even sign his new book, “It’s Only a Movie: Reel Life Adventures of a Film Obsessive” (Random House).

Continuing the celebration of the relationship between page and screen is Simon King who will make a return visit to Shetland in order to appear at the festival after the highly successful launch of “The Shetland Diaries” in the Town Hall earlier this year.

Wordplay will feature a strong musical element this year, in harmony with Screenplay.  This will take the shape of the legendary Michael Gray, the world’s leading authority on the work of Bob Dylan whose pioneering work, “Song and Dance Man: The Art of Bob Dylan” led the way in developing a literary appreciation of the man’s work. Thirty year s and two editions later we have Song and Dance Man III, a book of genuine weight, which contains a 152 page study of Dylan’s use of the lyric poetry of the pre-war blues in his work. This will be explored in his second talk of the weekend, “Bob Dylan and the Poetry of the Blues”. Michael Gray, who is renowned as a thoroughly engaging and entertaining speaker, has also written a book about the great bluesman, Blind Willie McTell, “Hand me My Travelling Shoes: in Search of Blind Willie McTell” (Bloomsbury) which is the title of his first talk.

Another key element of the music literature theme is provided by Will Kaufman, Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Central Lancashire who will be doing some hard travelling himself in order to present his acclaimed live documentary, “ Hard Times and Hard Travelling: the Life and Times of Woody Guthrie.” Dr Kaufman, himself no mean singer and guitarist provides what Ralph McTell has described as “the fastest hour and a half you will ever experience” in a presentation that will involve images and live performances oby Dr Kaufman of  the great American icon’s songs as well as other songs of the period.

As well as the music thread, the festival will have a strong dramatic component featuring both the writing element of the art form and performances. Both of these elements will be explored in the session with the celebrated dramatist, David Harrower which will include a rehearsed reading from his 2007 play “Blackbird” (Faber&Faber) as well as a talk by the writer and a Q&A session. Blackbird won the Critic’s Award for Theatre in Scotland and the Olivier Award for Best Play in 2007.

There will also be drama from closer to home in the form of a series of special performances of ten minute plays written in Shetland over the last year and performed by members of Serpentine Drama, a community group, based in Shetland with the aim of encouraging the writing and performance of new drama in Shetland.

There will also be drama for children, provided by The Story Tellers who will give two performances of “Tales from The Gypsy Caravan.” ‘The Storytellers’ was formed by Pendle Productions in 1985 as a Touring Theatre Company to take adaptations of classics to all types of venues. The Company is directed by the founder, Timothy Lince whose international work includes a 17 year association with the BBC, including working as a commissioned script and musical Writer/Director, Artistic Director of Manitou Arts Centre in Toronto and numerous major musical and theatrical tours. “Tales from the Gypsy Caravan” combines the rich tapestry of traditional storytelling with animated performance, music and song to create a production that is sure to both entertain and enthral.
The first Wordplay, in 2003, was an event primarily for children, and since then the festival has welcomed a long list of great writers for younger readers. This year will see a series of events, run by children’s writers, including Shetland Arts Writer in Residence, Chrissie Gittins. Chrissie’s poems have won prizes, been broadcast on BBCR4 and animated for Cbeebies television. Her adult poetry collections are Armature and I’ll Dress One Night As You. Her children’s poetry collections were shortlisted for the CLPE Award; all three are Choices for the Children’s Poetry Bookshelf. She writes radio drama and her short story collection is Family Connections.  As well as a session for youngsters, Chrissie will take part in a poetry reading for adults.

Needing little introduction to Shetland’s young readers is Valerie Watt, who has recently published her third dialect book for bairns.  ‘Bobby an da Burland Pearls’ inspired the musical of the same name.  With ‘Peerie Mootie’ and ‘Da Peesterleeties’ she has toured Shetland schools and nurseries, reading her stories, playing her fiddle and getting bairns involved in roleplay.  It is also rumoured she lends a hand to Tushie Truncherfaece, the world’s only trow columnist, who writes in Shetland Life. Valerie has made several highly successful appearances at Wordplay in the past, including a shadow puppet performance of Da Peesterleeties. This time round she will run a creative writing workshop based on “Bobby an da Burland Pearls” which will feature the puppets from the musical and her own excellent fiddle playing.

With her book “Tarantula Tide”, a prize winning thriller set in Shetland, Sharon Tregenza, will be making her first visit to the festival where she will present a solo event for children. This session will be based on the novel and will be all about the animals that feature in the novel and the animal smuggling trade.  Sharon will also take part in a joint event with Janis Mackay, herself a prize winning author of “Magnus Fin and the Ocean Quest.” Janis will also run a solo session for children, based on the oceanic adventure story that will involve the children imaginatively in creating their own sea monsters.

Poetry lovers will have the opportunity of almost total immersion in their favourite artform, including a reading by Christopher Reid, whose book,  “A Scattering” won the Costa Best book Prize in 2009, making Mr Reid one of only three poets to have ever been honoured in this way – the other two being Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes.  The poet will read from his work and answer questions.

Saturday will feature two poetry double headers: first up will be Christie Williamson from Yell, now living in Glasgow, who recently won the Callum MacDonald Memorial Award for his pamphlet “Arc O Mons,” a translation from the original Spanish into Shetland Dialect, published by Hansel Cooperative Press. Christie recently featured at Stanza International Poetry festival in St Andrews and will join Christine De Luca who will be launching her new collection “North End of Eden” (Luath). She has now had published five volumes of poetry and enjoys a high standing in the national literature scene and is a prize-winning poet, writing in both English and Shetland dialect.

This reading will be followed by a special guest appearance from Orkney, by Nalini Paul, the current George Mackay Brown Fellow and Morag MacInnes. Nalini Paul has done a great amount of work in collaboration with visual artists and her most recent work is “Skirlags” (Red Squirrel Press). Morag MacInnes regularly contributes to the New Shetlander and has recently had published “Alias Isobel” a cycle of narrative poetry about fellow Orcadian, Isabel Gunn who gained employment in the Hudson Bay Company, disguised as a man.

From further afield, Vancouver, in fact and no less welcome is Miranda Pearson whose poetry has been described as “deeply startling and accomplished.” She has now had published three collections of poetry: “Prime” (Porcepic 2001), “Aviary “(Oolichan 2006), which won the Alfred G Bailey prize and “Harbour” (Oolichan 2009). Reading with Miranda will be Chrissie Gittins also a prize-winning poet. Her adult poetry collections are “Armature” (Arc, 2003) and “I’ll Dress One Night As You” (Salt, 2009) described by Moniza Alvi as “…Lively, accessible and gently surprising…”

The novel will also feature prominently at Wordplay, in the very new forms of “Da Happy Laand” (Luath 2010) by Shetland’s very own Robert Alan Jamieson, his fourth described by Kevin MacNeil as being  “… big in scope, rich in ideas, uncompromising in execution.” The other brand new book to be featured this year will be “And the Land Lay Still” by James Robertson (Penguin 2010) which was described by Irvine Welsh, in his review for The Guardian, as “nothing less than a landmark for the novel in Scotland”.

Making her first appearance at Wordplay is Mitzi Szereto, author, blogger (Errant Ramblings) and creator/presenter of Mitzi TV. She has published several books, including In Sleeping Beauty’s Bed: Erotic Fairy Tales. Mitzi pioneered the erotic writing workshop in the UK and Europe, and has lectured in creative writing at several British universities. She edited the first erotica anthology to feature a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. As well as giving a reading and Q&A session, Mitzi Szereto will run a two-hour workshop on how to write erotic fiction.

Another first for the festival is the arrival of Book Camp, a three hour master class on how to get published in the world of fiction for children which will be run by Julia Churchill a literary agent with the Greenhouse Agency and Leah Thaxton, senior publisher with Egmont, the largest Children’s Book publisher in the UK. The session will consist of an hour, from the agent’s perspective, an hour from the publisher’s perspective and a further hour’s opportunity to discuss questions from the floor. As with all the Wordplay workshops, advanced booking is necessary for this session.

Shetland Arts Literature Development Officer Donald Anderson said, “ It is immensely exciting to see such a wide variety of writers and events. I think that our volunteer curators, Genny White and Christine Hughson, have made a great contribution in helping us to bring together such a fine programme.”

Shetland Arts would like to thank the event’s main funders, Creative Scotland and Sponsors BP/Sullom Voe Terminal; Brudolff Hotels and Shetland Family Centre Services for their continued support of Wordplay.

Tickets for all events are available from Shetland Box Office, Islesburgh Community Centre, Lerwick – 01595 745 555.

Advanced booking is recommended for all events.

The programme for each festival can be seen on the Wordplay and Screenplay pages.

Jen Hadfield will feature at 3.30pm alongside Rodge Glass and Eleanor Thom in a session chaired by Jenny Brown entitled “Exclusive Short Stories by Leading Writers”. She will read a piece of non-fiction on the theme ‘Elsewhere’ commissioned by the festival. Six days later on Sunday 5^th September at 10am, she will will appear at Wordplay 2010 in Shetland, where she will run a poetry writing workshop entitled, “Make it Strange: Dreams and Transformations.”

Later, at 8.30pm, Donald S Murray will appear in conversation with Will Self, in a session entitled “Fresh perspectives on St Kilda on the 80^th Anniversary of the Evacuation.” Murray whose book the “Guga Hunters” was reviewed by Will Self, for the Daily Telegraph, said “I feel immensely lucky to be appearing with Will Self at Edinburgh Book Festival, and I am looking forward to the event with great excitement.”

Murray is also delightedly anticipating the imminent publication of his newest book, “And On This Rock: Italian Chapel, Orkney” (Birlinn) which is due off the presses in September and will be launched in Edinburgh at at 7.30pm on 1^st October in Valvona and Crolla on Elm Row.

www.shetlandarts.org/events/wordplay

www.edbookfest.co.uk

Also appearing will be film critic, Mark Kermode, who with Linda Ruth Williams will curate Screenplay, the film festival which will be based in the Garrison Theatre and will run from Tuesday, August 31^st through to Sunday 5^th September and will feature actor Jason Isaacs and a wide variety of films, including work by local film makers. Further information about both festivals will be published in due course.

Wordplay – More information and full programme

Screenplay – More information and full programme

The Scottish Book Trust has just launched their new project the Young Writers Awards. We’re looking for 3 teenagers to be mentored by teen author Cathy Forde. They will meet with Cathy several times over a 7 month period, develop their creative writing, meet agents and writers, go to the Edinburgh International Book Festival and visit a top London publisher.

Application deadline is Monday 31st May 2010. Further details and how to apply online: www.scottishbooktrust.com/youngwritersawards <http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/youngwritersawards>

This is a superb opportunity. Please pass this information on to any teens who may be interested.

The art work for “Small Expectations” was created by Douglas Robertson who will also launch the book at the Bedales Gallery in Hampshire where he is holding a private viewing of “The Net Mender” his latest exhibition of specially commissioned box constructions and drawings, which includes the original art work for the book. Douglas is himself no stranger to Shetland having exhibited and run workshops here in the past. Nor is he a stranger to collaborating with poets, having worked with, amongst others, Jen Hadfield, Christine de Luca, Andrew Phillip and Kevin MacNeil. Speaking about the launch he said, “I thought Donald’s idea of the simultaneous event and readings was an excellent way to launch the book, particularly as it will include superb readers and singers from several islands. I am very pleased and privileged to be able to play a part in the launch by exhibiting the original cover artwork as part of my exhibition”

As well as the launch of “Small Expectations”, the event will also be a celebration of the languages of the Islands of Scotland’s edge and will feature readings in Gaelic, Shetland Dialect and Orkney Dialect, by writers such as Myles Campbell from Skye, Morag MacInnes from Orkney, John Murray from Lewis and James Sinclair from Lerwick. The launch will include a performance by Donald Anderson of two songs co-written with Donald S Murray. There will also be Gaelic songs contributed by Ryno Morrison and the renowned traditional Gaelic singer, Mairi Smith.

Murray will read a selection of poems and stories from “Small Expectations”, his fourth book, which has already garnered some excellent reviews and has been hailed by no less a commentator than James Robertson (author of “The Testament of Gideon Mack” and “The Fanatic”), as “…fine, assured writing, full of contradictions, dichotomies and ironies.”

Speaking about the launch, Mr Murray from the Port of Ness in the Butt of Lewis, now a resident of Shetland said, “ I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to launch this book in so many places at once, and I would especially like to thank the UHI and especially the technical staff of Shetland College, The Millennium Institute in Inverness, Lewis Castle College in Stornoway, Orkney College in Kirkwall and Sabhal Mor Ostaig in Skye for their support. I think that it is great that people from different areas around the edges of Scotland, who nevertheless have so much in common in terms of their experiences and culture should be enabled in coming together to celebrate both their commonality and their diversity.”

Choman Hardi is a poet, translator and painter, born in Iraqi Kurdistan. She arrived in the UK in 1993, having twice had to flee to Iran with her family, in 1975 and in 1988 (during Saddam’s Anfal Campaign against the Kurds.) She has studied philosophy and psychology at Oxford University and at the University College of London, completed a doctorate at Kent University and post-doctorate research at the University of Uppsala.

Dr Hardi has published three volumes of poetry in Kurdish and her first volume of poetry written in English, Life For Us was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2006. She has wide experience of working as a creative writing tutor which includes running poetry workshops for Exiled Writers Ink, Apples and Snakes, New Writing Partnerships, Spread the Word, Accademi, The South Bank, The Arvon Foundation and the British Council. In 2007 she facilitated a series of poetry workshops for the young people in Kurdistan through the Youth Culture Houses in different towns and cities. She has also been Poet-in-Residence at Moniack Mhor Writers Centre.

When she is not carrying out research, delivering workshops or writing, Choman Hardi also performs her work around the world and has read her poetry in the UK (including Shetland where her appearance at Wordplay was supported by Amnesty International), Europe, USA, India, Malaysia, and Taiwan. Speaking about her residency in Shetland, Choman said, ”I am really excited about revisiting this place with its open skies and compassionate people. I hope that this month will be a creative time and that, together, we will produce some new work inspired by the words of other poets.”

Dr Hardi’s work in Shetland will include support for Shetland writers through creative writing workshops in the community, schools visits and poetry readings. Shetland Arts Literature Development Officer, Donald Anderson said, “Choman Hardi is a fine poet and an excellent writing tutor who is very keen to come to Shetland. I have no doubt that she will make a tremendous impact both in her readings and her workshops.”

The residency is one of a series of residencies run by Shetland Arts with support from the Scottish Arts Council.

Mr Hudson will be joined by a coterie of the local writers who have been involved in the string of workshops, who will give readings of their own works – both poetry and prose. The evening will of course feature a reading by the writer in residence of his own poetry, including some of the work he has produced during his tenure at the Booth in Scalloway.

The residency has comprised a series of workshops which have covered not only the processes involved in creative writing, editing and publishing but has also featured workshops developing writers ability to perform their work effectively to an audience. Friday’s reading will feature some of the fruits of these workshops.
Mr Hudson said “It has been a huge pleasure to be writer in residence in Shetland. The people have been fantastic, generous and welcoming. I want to share my work with them and will read some of the pieces that Shetland has inspired in me. It would also be great if as many folk as possible could get along to my reading to hear the talent that resides in their own communities. Shetland is a talented place, rich in tradition and innovation, it has blown me away (and I don’t mean the weather). It promises to be a fun and fascinating evening.”

Speaking about the reading, Literature Development Officer, Donald Anderson said, “ this is a great chance to hear some very good new work being read by local writers. John himself is an engaging performer and a fine poet, producing work which is serious and thought provoking, moving and humorous.”

Tickets for the event, which is free, are available from Shetland Box Office and can be ordered by telephone on 01595 745 555 and collected at the event.